I just added to my Anti-Semitism piece:
Jan and I last night saw a DVD of Cabaret: first viewing for both of us. It’s an artifact that I know I avoided since 1968 when the musical assaulted Broadway, rubbed me wrong, possibly deliberately.

I’ve just removed a fair deal of scribble from the other day, want to start over, be a bit more efficient this time, add a bit of significance to the structure.

My life has been lived in Hitler’s shadow. That shadow has weakened but it’s still there. One of my oldest jokes on the subject concerns how rich Hitler would be if our arts and media paid him royalties for his appearances in the MovieToneNews. Leni Riefenstahl would be owed a few marks too. How much did Hitlaer bequeathe? and how much did he inherit? What would Cabaret be like without Brecht, Weil, Die Blaue Angel … Visconti …? Without Judy Garland?

Cabaret socked us with insults to history, to Germany, to the Nazis, many of them unfair not because they’re false but because accounts indulge us in imagining that we were and are different, better, a tad more Christian. Scrapbook style I’ll view some of the relevant images.